The Deutscher Schachbund (DSB, "German Chess Federation") was founded on 18 July 1877, with Hofrat Rudolf von Gottschall as Chairman and Hermann Zwanzig as General Secretary. The Leipzig (1877) tournament was organized by the Mitteldeutscher Schachbund, but over the next two years, 62 chess clubs would become DSB members, and the first official DSB Kongress took place at Schützenhaus in Leipzig in July 1879. The DSB then held their first Meisterturnier (Master's tournament) (this page). This started out quite modest: three invitations were accepted by the Austrian chess masters Berthold Englisch, Karl Pitschel and Adolf Schwarz. The remaining nine seats went to German masters: Louis and Wilfried Paulsen, Max Bier, Ernst Flechsig, Fritz Riemann, Emil Schallopp, Arnold Schottländer, Johannes Minckwitz and Carl Wemmers. The field and format were limited, with two rounds being played on most days.

In W Paulsen vs J Minckwitz, 1879, Paulsen exceeded the time limit at move 39. Minckwitz agreed to continue the game, but then made a mistake in his 58th move and lost. A discussion ensued, the arbiters had to vote, and by a 2:1 result, they decided the game lost for both players. Minckwitz and Schottländer forfeited their games in the last three rounds. Four games are missing: Bier - Schallopp 1-0 (Round 1), Wemmers - W. Paulsen 0-1 (Round 1), Schallopp - Schottländer 1-0 (Round 4), and Schottländer - Bier 0-1 (Round 9).

Berthold Englisch won this event with nine wins out of his 11 games, all of which have been preserved. What began with the Meisterturnier at DSB's Kongress in 1879 would in the next two years evolve into one of the stronger and more widely recognized of international chess competitions: DSB's 2nd Meisterturnier in Berlin (1881), and the concurrent Berlin Hauptturnier (1881).

thomastonk: From the introduction: <No games are recorded by Minckwitz and Wemmers in the last three rounds, so it is possible those games were forfeited.>

Minckwitz confirmed this in "Deutsche Schachzeitung" 1879, p 251. So, the number of missing games drops from 10 to 4. In the crosstable on the same page he marked also the game Paulsen vs J Minckwitz, 1879 as forfeited. On pages 316-317 he published this game and at the end he wrote: the game was adjourned, the position is a draw, but since he withdrew from the tournament, he resigned.

From the introduction: <The game W Paulsen vs J Minckwitz, 1879 was scored as a loss by both players when Paulsen exceeded the time limit while checkmating Minckwitz.> Well, this is only partly correct, and this incident is much more complicated. Fritz Riemann gave a detailed account in "Deutsche Schachzeitung 1879, pages 326-327.

First of all, Paulsen exceeded the time limit at move 39, because he thought this was already his 41th move. Minckwitz agreed to continue the game (maybe because he thought he was already winning - Riemann is not sure). Then Minckwitz made a mistake in his 58th move and lost the game. I skip here the description of the next steps (descriptions of the rules, the discussions, the intentions, etc.). Finally, the arbiters had to vote, and by a 2:1 result, they decided that the game is lost for both players.

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